Lakeside properties' appeal is on upswing

Waterfront land attracts home buyers the way golf courses did in the 1990s.

January 22, 2006|By Daphne Sashin, Sentinel Staff Writer

KISSIMMEE -- Susan and Charles Borchini enjoy playing golf. But when they moved to Florida last year, they bought a house in Bellalago, a Mediterranean-style community studded with lakes and trails but no fairways.

They figured they could drive to one of the area's many golf courses when they felt like playing. The trade-off was a house where they can set sail from the backyard, reach Lake Tohopekaliga in less than five minutes and watch blazing sunsets from their porch.

A declining market for residential golf-course communities, combined with an increasing demand for homes in natural settings, is prompting developers to create more opportunities for home buyers such as the Borchinis who want waterfront property.

Compared to a golf course, a lake offers a triple win for developers: It can command higher house premiums, costs significantly less to maintain, and at the same time collects stormwater runoff, satisfying regulators.

In Osceola County, developers with access to Lake Toho are going a step further and building communities such as Bellalago, whose homeowners can take their boats from a man-made waterway into the natural lake via a boat lift. Two such projects on the north side of Lake Toho have been approved in the past six months. Three of the mega-developments proposed to go between Lake Toho and East Lake Toho use the same model.

"The concept is, your interior boat basin is a system that can be managed and monitored, as opposed to all the boats going to the same public boat ramp -- an unmanaged pollution source," said land planner Bob Whidden, who designed the Osceola communities.

Before environmental regulators clamped down on the practice, developers used to carve canals that led straight to the open water. But in doing so, they were allowing homeowners to pollute the natural lakes and streams with fertilizers and other chemicals that washed off their lawns and driveways. Under the current regulations, developers are typically prohibited from mingling man-made and natural waters, said Bill Graf, a spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District.

"What the designers are doing now is, they're getting two uses out of the same water -- they're creating a boater's paradise and at the same time meeting regulatory rules," Graf said. "You get the lifestyle and the quality of life, but you're not impacting the water body that is enjoyed by the community as a whole."

The increasing popularity of water-oriented developments is partly a response to the economics of residential golf-course communities, planners say. In the late 1980s and early '90s, developers used golf courses to drive sales, banking on buyers to pay a premium for a manicured, parklike setting behind their homes.

But few people who lived on the golf course paid to play. Golf participation peaked in the late '90s, said Jim Bagley, the Orlando division president for Pulte Homes.

In 2000, 500 golf courses were built in the United States. By 2003, the number of new courses had dropped to 195. The following year, fewer than 150 courses were built, according to surveys by Del Webb, a division of Pulte Homes.

"You look at Orlando, which still has on the outskirts quite a bit of land, and there are very few new golf courses," Bagley said.

The glut of golf courses, combined with increasing operation costs, made it difficult for owners to recover their costs on residential golf developments, builders say. The yearly maintenance budget for a residential golf course ranges from $250,000 to $1.5 million, said Mark Farrow, executive director of the National Golf Course Owners Association's Florida chapter.

With escalating land values, some golf-course owners decided it made more sense to sell their 150 to 300 acres of tees, fairways and greens than continue to operate them. In Orlando, Pulte Homes bought the Cypress Creek golf course two years ago and plans to replace it with 1,000 attached homes designed around a network of trails and lakes.

"We had the opportunity to leave golf here and do homes around golf, but homeowners see much greater value being near water than golf," Bagley said.

In Bellalago, where nearly every lot borders an internal lake, houses are selling for $300,000 to $600,000, a sign outside the community advertises.

Jayne and Walter Dimick picked that development in 2003 based on a site plan, long before any homes had been built. Walter loved to fish, and Jayne fell in love with the surroundings.

"Sitting here looking at the lake, it's really beautiful," said Jayne, 48, who sells time shares. "You feel like you're on vacation every day."

The Borchinis picked a lot that faced west so they could see the sunset year-round.

"It's absolutely beautiful, especially in the wintertime. The sky is just every shade of orange, pink and yellow," said Susan Borchini, 54.

Many evenings, she watches the sun slide down the unspoiled sky into the lake. That, she said, is much better than a view of a golf course.